The technical level of disposable bag containers belonging to so-called flexible packings, having mouths for removing little by little, and being sealed after charge of contents is constituted by structures having a bag (specifically, various plastic pouches, bag in cartons, internal bags in boxes, and the like) formed by sealing appropriate peripheral edges of a thin sheet or film made of flexible packing material (normally flexible compound packing material), a separately-made outlet mouth inserted into a hole in a bag surface or between the sealed surfaces and sealingly and integrally attached thereto, and a cap or plug (shortened to simple a "cap") for sealingly closing the mouth.
This bag container has special merits, such as economy due to its base composed of a bag (that is, low costs of materials, manufacture, and transportation), custody characteristic before charge, non-air-intake discharge characteristic during squeeze removal (in the case of mucous or past contents), easiness in degassing, characteristic of press-breaking of hygroscopic solidified material from outside (in the case of powder or grain contents), and disposal characteristic after use, which hard cubic containers do not have. Meanwhile, in comparison with a bag having a mere bag mouth, the mouth and the cap are convenient and thorough in preservation (specifically, in sealing of the bag for prevention of degration, change of scent, change of color, ingress of dust, or the like) of unused remaining contents. In addition, while the bag mouth is flexible and unstable and is inconvenient in handling, the mouth is better since the mouth serves as a support which stabilizes the container when the contents are removed little by little, when additives are injected, or when the cap is removed. On the other hand, since the mouth and the cap involve drawbacks and defectivenesses as described below in [1]-[10], containers of such a kind have hardly come into wide use except the case of liquid contents
[1]. Engagement of the mouth needs to be performed during a bag manufacturing step, so that at least the conventional bag manufacturing step is obliged to be changed or supplemented virtually (specifically, even when content charging and sealing steps are the same as conventional steps, the mouth needs to be inserted into the bag and be connected during the bag manufacturing step). Since the mouth has a large region which comes into direct contact with the contents, close consideration is necessary beforehand in mutual safety adaptability.
[2]. The mouth must be in perfect sealing connection with the bag throughout the entire periphery (specifically, for the purpose of preventing the contents from leaking and maintaining the airtight and watertight characteristic of the container during transportation and use, the entire peripheral surface of the mouth and the insertion surface of the bag must be in perfect sealing connection).
[3]. In the combination of the mouth and the cap, the sealing closure of the mouth and the prevention of unwanted opening of the cap by suitable means are necessary (specifically, for the purpose of preventing leakage and unwanted discharge of the contents during transportation: the accuracy of the sealing contact between the contacting curved surfaces of these two members needs to be increased and the mouth and the cap must be screwed or fitted to each other; a separately made internal cap must be closely fitted within the mouth; an internal cap must be provided integrally within the mouth; a cap seal must be fitted around or attached to the closing cap; or the container must be packed individually).
[4]. The mouth connected to the hole of the bag forms no small useless space during transportation (specifically, only the mouth projects outward from the outer surface of the bag, so that many spaces are formed around it).
[5]. In the case of mucous or paste contents, even when discharge is suspended, the remainder in the cap prevents the mouth from being closed immediately (accordingly, before the cap is closed, the remainder must be removed). In the case where the removal is performed with fingers, hands, or napkins and it is necessary to prevent the mouth from being polluted with bacteria, the fingers, the hands, or the napkins must be disinfected or cleaned and dried beforehand, and further clearance work is necessary.
[6]. In the case of powder contents, grain contents, tablet contents, flake contents, or small lump contents, when the mouth clogs due to their internal friction during discharge, the restart of discharge is liable to fail (specifically, upon the restart, shock must be offered to the contents from outside so that the contents tend to scatter undesirably).
[7]. In the case of contents other than liquid, the mouth makes adjustment of the quantity of discharge difficult (specifically, in addition to the degree of downward facing of the mouth, it is possible to perform rough adjustment, that is, the application of pressure or vibration to the contents).
[8]. In the case of fluid contents other than liquid of low viscosity, the mouth makes a small quantity of discharge to a preset place difficult; and especially in the case of mucous contents, after the discharge, droppings from the edges occur so that pollution is induced (specifically, when the mouth is forced to face downward, the contents spread along the arcuate mouth edges and a large quantity of the contents is discharge; in the case of mucous contents, when the mouth is force to face upward to stop the discharge, the remaining droplets in the mouth edges move outward and fall).
[9]. The mouth connected between the seal surfaces of the bag is inconvenient for discharge or large quantity materials or solid materials, continuing discharge having a less posibility of clogging of the mouth, or injection of additives which a large mouth can suit (It should be noted that the mouth is just a small mouth in view of the consideration of transportation or the balance of design, or is virtually a small mouth in the form of an elongated distorted circle extending along the seal).
[10]. Even when the contents adhere to the inner walls and solidify so that the diameter of the mouth is reduced, the small mouth makes it difficult to remove them easily at any time (accordingly, the solidified materials must be removed by suitable tools).
For practical use by comsumers, a screwed mouth of a general cubic container, especially in the case of contents of less fluidity and a frequently used container, tends to remain not sealingly closed and roughly closed. The background of this includes consciousness that even in the case of rough closure, the gap is charged with the remainder or free air communication to the exterior is prevented if the gap is not charged with the remainder, so that sealing closure is unnecessary. However, in general, it is said that this is an escape from obstacles (such as pollution of the base of the mouth, the fingers, and the hands with the remainder after the discharge, the removal of the solidified materials obstructing the sealing closure, or a long time necessary to open the cap) involved with sealing closure. Accordingly, it is known that consumers notably have consciousness to desire cheap and simplicity, and as a result of the reflection of this, even in the case of cubically formed containers for liquid, there are many fitting caps of the easily opening and closing type.
Meanwhile, for manufacturers in this field, devices and means for utilizing an economical bag and changing it to a convenient bag container are desired sincerely, but good results have not yet been obtained because they are swayed by conventional and fixed ideas that a bag container is originally a thing which has a bag, a mouth of a conventional design sealingly fixed to the bag, and a cap. This invention achieves such technical tasks with an extremely simple equipment.
Accordingly, in view of the above-mentioned consciousness of consumers, an object of this invention is to provide a novel and simple bag mouth opener which solves the above-mentioned drawbacks and defectivenesses [1]-[10] related to the mouth and the cap in the prior art and which premises that it is equipped to the bag.